We all enjoy the thrill of a good fright now and again. To feel our hearts beat faster, our neck hair stands on end, our breathing get heavy and our palms get sweaty all in anticipation of a big fright that ends with a blood-curdling scream! We enjoy this so much that a whole holiday was created just for that rush. What we don’t enjoy is when that feeling of fright comes on when we look at our merchant statement from Square. While it might not have happened yet, it will this Halloween when Square raises their rates & fees.
On November 1st Square will raise their rates from a flat 2.75% to 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction. Now on the surface, this might seem like a small insignificant increase or just a different way of writing the same rate, a one-step forward-one step backwards kind of notion. It isn’t. That 10 cents per transaction will make a big difference in how fees are calculated.
With the old rate of 2.75%, your only fee is the percentage of the credit card sales you run at your company during the month. So if you have a line out the door with each customer charging $2 for your products or just five customers charging $200, you paid the same rate, it doesn’t matter.
However, with the new rate of 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction, every customer in line adds another small fee for you to pay. So as with the last example, the line of customers out the door charging $2 each will cause you to pay a significantly higher fee than just the five customers who are charging $200 each. Unfortunately, the .15% “reduction” rate will not make up for it, as it will amount to just a penny or two difference. For the most part, it will disappear with the fractional rounding of fees.
Square is everywhere. Like a zombie apocalypse, this rate increase will affect everyone everywhere. So why wait until this Halloween to be scared of your next merchant statement? Leave the fears and frights to the trick-or-treaters this year and contact us for a better solution that won’t leave you in a cold sweat.
Have you thought about getting a security system for your POS station? A security system is an important tool for protecting you against virtual threats. The number of security threats have done nothing but increase over the past few years. We offer Vipre, an enterprise-level security system designed to take the hassle out of protecting yourself.
Vipre is $15 a month. We guarantee that if your systems are compromised, it will cost you more than $15 in money and time. WorldPay estimates that you will pay up to $156 per record lost. Also, the cost of repair in our shop is $50 an hour, that’s enough for over 3 months worth of protection! The cost of recovering from a data breach can bankrupt a small business. For the cost of a video subscription service, you can stay protected.
The war against viruses is an ever-changing one. It’s like an arms race; Both sides are constantly evolving in order to take over the other. Vipre automatically and constantly updates their software so that it’s always ready for whatever threats it may face.
All of these factors together create a security system that’s designed to prevent and eliminate threats and give you peace of mind.
As always, we are here to help. Let us know if you have any questions.
Total Merchant Supply is a POS Dealer based in NC & SC.